


Like wings of butterflies

by Mossgreen



Series: 2770 ab urbe condita [17]
Category: 2770 ab urbe condita - Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ancient Rome, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gender Roles, Genderfuck, Genderplay, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, M/M, Master/Slave, References to Roman ideas of sexuality, Sexual Slavery, Slavery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-28 00:27:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15696462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mossgreen/pseuds/Mossgreen
Summary: If Ven is to fully accept the role he's been forced into, there's one thing he needs to try out. Once, at least.I do tend to think that the use of makeup is related to the need to sexually attract and please the powerful in any given society, so that it's considered more suitable for slaves in the Slave Breakers world and for women (and occasionally gay or performatively-gay men) in the real world.- MaculategiraffeNo actual sex, but it's referenced briefly.





	Like wings of butterflies

**Author's Note:**

> The Romans think differently about sex from how we do. For them, it's a lot more about who is doing the penetrating v. who is being penetrated. A Roman man who considers himself to be a _vir_ would never stoop to being penetrated... a slave cannot possibly be considered a _vir_. ( _homō_ , yes, in its broad meaning of 'man, human being' but _vir_ – a virtuous, manly, brave male man – never. That was reserved for Roman citizens). Side-note: the 'homo' part of homosexual does not come from the Latin _homō_ for man but from the Greek _όμο_ 'homo', meaning same. 
> 
> "In modern times we may define sexuality in terms of _attraction_ (to men, to women, to both, to neither) but the Romans defined it in terms of _action_ (the role you took during sex)" – from a good post by Anonymous on fail_fandomanon, [here](https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/110577.html?thread=558079217#cmt558079217) (Emphasis mine. Thank you to that Nonny; I didn't even think of looking on Wikipedia for some of the stuff I've found, and looking there has definitely helped with understanding Ven's hang-ups about some things as well as giving me a good approach for the Gender Play square on the kink_bingo card I decided to do for fun.)
> 
> Also. I don't wear make-up (shock! horror!) and ended up looking up a couple of tutorials on Youtube. So... any incorrect descriptions are my fault. Ven's way better at this than I am. (Plus, he looks good in it, despite me.)
> 
> Apologies for the overload of Latin in this one; translations are at the end, as usual. And it switched tenses on me and wouldn't switch back right away. :(

Ven had been spending his time recently doing a bit of research. Suddenly having permission to use the computer during Master's absence had made things easier; books were all very well, but they were static and didn't necessarily explain things as well as they could – and Master hadn't really bothered with providing much beyond the photographic equivalent of erotic murals anyway. At least, he hadn't put anything else anywhere Ven was allowed to look.

But he was allowed to use the Internet, now, though naturally Master had activated the slave-lock for Ven's account, which meant that he couldn't look at any of the political sites or watch political videos on VosTubum. The first few times he landed on the front page there, it was full of thumbnails for Master's channel, mostly showing Ven himself in various predicaments.

What he wanted were hair and make-up tutorials, not bondage tutorials. He himself was no pretty boy, young and lithe and delicate and smooth-cheeked; he was older than that. Not so very old, in his mid-twenties, but that was old enough compared with the pubescent youths conjured up by the word _catamītus._

He wouldn't define himself as a _pathicus_ either. He had never been penetrated before Master took him, and had never thought about it beyond the abstract, and hoping that it wouldn't happen to him. Being penetrated was a risk run by any slave, especially the boys and the pretty girls. Ven had breathed a sigh of relief when he'd reached twenty and his old master hadn't so much as patted his bum.

Though maybe that had something to do with Ven's being born a _verna_ in his old master's household. For all he knew, he'd been fathered by his previous master.

He was more than ten years too old to be a pretty boy, all smooth skin and big eyes and whatever turned men on when they saw a pretty young teen, Ven was fairly sure he didn't have it, if he ever had. And it wasn't having that, or not having that, which had made his master stop him that day, and meant that the best word to describe him now was _concubīnus._

Enough thinking, though what he wanted was a decent tutorial (or set of tutorials) for someone his age, rather than all the ones aimed at the pretty boys. It wasn't as though he was jealous, exactly, but when you were that young and your skin was that clear and you blushed if your master so much as breathed “ _tē pēdīcāre volo_ ” in your ear, it wasn't as though you _needed_ to add artificial colour to your face. Unless your master preferred you with orange eye-lids or something.

Ven studied his face in the mirror. He was... it was somewhere between 'pretty' and 'handsome', really, if he was objective about it. Not young enough for the one and not... grown enough? man enough? for the other. ('man enough' – _that_ was a laugh – a slave might be _homō_ , a human, but never _vīr_ , a man. That was a word only applied to male citizens, after all).

Dark hair – had its length been enough to make Master look at him sexually? Ven had never really been one to wear it short, but he'd certainly never primped and preened and done anything spectacular with it, either. Just combed it out and tied it back neatly. Longer hair was one of the marks of a bed-slave, whatever words people used to describe him, and Ven thought that if – when! - he was eventually spurned from his master's bed, he would get it cut.

Green eyes. An unusual colour, admittedly, and the only real sign of his mother's British blood. He'd have to make the most of them, somehow, if he was going to go through with this sudden, stupid idea he'd had.

Clear skin, which was... well. Expected – or not _un_ expected at least – in someone of his age. 

The problem was, while Ven might be his master's bed-slave, he had never been cast in that role in the traditional, visual sense. A painted whore for his master.

And it was.... well. It was confusing. On the one hand, Master fucked him every which way possible – standing up, lying down, sitting in his _lap_ for gods' sakes. And on the other... at least Ven hadn't had to wear some of the ridiculous things the pretty boy slaves were frequently dressed in. At his age, his master was unlikely to put him in a sheer silk tunic that barely covered his prick and wouldn't hide it if it _did_.

Was Ven buying into the stereotype if he pursued this? Did he _want_ to do this? If his master didn't like it, then his master didn't like it and he'd never have to do it again. But if his master did turn out to like it, then he'd probably make Ven do it again (maybe not every day, but frequently enough)... so did Ven like the idea enough to risk his master liking it and making him wear the stuff every day?

It would be less... painful... than some of the stuff Master did to him anyway.

If he could deal with everything else his master did to him, he could cope with wearing make-up every day. It wasn't as though it would be for the rest of his life, either, unless that was spectacularly short. He was developing useful secretarial skills, for one thing – and if he somehow displeased his master so much his master no longer wanted him in his bed, Ven was already a useful house-slave. Anyway, misjudging this would not land him in as much trouble as all that – it could be easily washed off, for one thing. And surely his master wouldn't make him wear make-up when he took Ven with him on business.

He looked through the bag he had been given – there was so much of it! A quick internet search informed him that the best shades of eye-shadow to bring out the green of his eyes were wine, plum and shades of violet or lavender, and emptying the bag produced several different colours of eye-shadow, some lipsticks and lip-glosses and numerous brushes.

He had been taught about make-up, many years ago, and laid out the brushes he was going to need, the eye-shadow that had caught his eye (a compact of five or six hues shading from a deep wine to a blush pink) which proved to be unused when he opened it. There was even a make-up mirror; Rosia had been thorough when dumping stuff into the bag for him. 

Something was... _odd_ , though – quite apart from the sheer amount of stuff in the bag. Most of it was unused, what _was_ open had been touched only once or twice... and all of it seemed chosen to suit his particular colouring. 

It took longer than he wanted it to, and he had to wipe one eyelid off completely and start again from scratch, but he was finally happy with the result. A dark wine colour on the lids, blended just right, just enough to bring out the green of his eyes, just enough to make them look brighter than normal. Dark enough to look alluring, sensuous... he hopes. Or doesn't hope. 

It's not the smoky effect that has been popular recently among _concubīni_ and some women, but it's _there_ , undeniably, darkening the lids and the area below his brows. 

He finds a lipstick a bare shade or two darker than the natural colour of his lips and applies that, too, carefully – he doesn't want it to be too obvious because that's not the point of this. He's not sure, either of himself or of his master's reaction, not sure _enough_ – and even if he were, a bright scarlet is not his colour anyway.

He finishes off, very carefully, with the narrowest lines possible in both lip-liner and eye-liner, and looks in the large mirror. He still needs to do his hair, but it is very definitely a _concubīnus_ staring back at him, a man who knows his primary purpose is to take his master's cock any way his master gives it to him, fucking his mouth till the lipstick smudges, smearing all over the prick invading him until Master decides to flip him over and take his arse.

He can't quite bring himself to care. There's a quote he'd been told, more than once, when first learning about this sort of thing... “ _impudīcītia_ is a crime for the freeborn, a necessity in a slave, a duty for the freedman...”

He returned to the desk, picking up his hairbrush. If Master _did_ like it, Ven would have to enquire (delicately!) about somewhere to do this properly – if he was going to end up doing it on a regular basis, anyway.

The contents of the carrier-bag had included a couple of small bottles of perfume, as well as the make-up, and Ven took a moment. The choice was between cedar and sandalwood; both suitably masculine and suitably delicate, and he finally decided on the cedar one, adding a few drops to his hairbrush once he had brushed his hair out smoothly, brushing the scent into his hair. 

He carefully put everything except the used brushes back into the carrier-bag; he would have to wash them out before the next time he did this (if there was a next time, and he wasn't sure whether he wanted there to be, or not). The carrier-bag tucked neatly between his mattress and the wall, for now, and he signed off the computer and settled down to wait for his master's return.

**Author's Note:**

> Translations:  
>  _catamītus_ – the pubescent and generally passive or receptive partner in a relationship with a young man. The English word _catamite_ suggests a bigger age difference than the Latin usage did (where the older man is the active/dominant/penetrating partner). When directed at an adult man, the word was meant as an insult.  
>  _pathicus_ – a man who was penetrated sexually, who desired to be used sexually. The gender of the dominant/active partner didn't matter, and therefore a _pathicus_ was not necessarily homosexual in the modern sense.  
>  _verna_ – a slave born in his master's household (or on his master's farm); a homegrown slave. Generally brought up with (or in close proximity to) his master's children, the implication is often that a _verna_ was fathered by the master, though if a male and female slave had a relationship, any children from that would also be _vernae_. (Latin is a strange language, the feminine word applies equally to males, without needing to change the gender of the word.)  
>  _concubīnus_ – a male concubine or bed-slave. A female concubine ( _concubīna_ ) might have been a free person, a male was always a slave.  
>  _tē pēdīcāre volo_ \- “I want to bugger you”/”I want to take you up the arse” - Latin puts the verb at the end of the sentence, but _volo tē pēdīcāre_ would also (I think) be a legitimate word-order. (I haven't done any Latin in ten years so the alternative might actually be the more legitimate option!)  
>  _impudīcītia_ – lewdness, sexual shamelessness. The quote is from Seneca the Elder (d. 39A.D.)


End file.
